EL84 Comparison and a great buy

[Mastervolume]

I recently sat down with my 18watt marshall clone, Matchless lightening Clone and D13 9/15 and tried out some el84s.

JJ- no. - when compared to what you can find on the market right now.

Ei - OK big sounding tubes.

Then I met this guy over at the 18watt board.

terry_kilgore2003@yahoo.com

He had some 84s listed for sale and was in socal so I figured a trip was in order.

I listened to and bought a quad of Telam 84s for 75 bucks as well as a duet of some big bottled russian mil spec 84s for 15.

The russians for 15.00 will stomp any current production tube. Period. Better bass tighter tone better smoother highend than any of the jj/Ei/Sovtek stuff. These are a no brainer. I am going to purchase 8 more just for backup.

The real winner however was the Telams. As sweet as any mullard or telefunken I have ever heard at less than a quarter of the price. I am going to grab another quad. I think then he will only have a few quads left. As long as I can get these tubes they will be the only thing I will use in my 84 amps. Any of you guys running a 84 based amp should really jump on these.

Just a heads up.

 

[Roccaforte Amps]

Originally posted by Mastervolume
I recently sat down with my 18watt marshall clone, Matchless lightening Clone and D13 9/15 and tried out some el84s.

JJ- no. - when compared to what you can find on the market right now.

Ei - OK big sounding tubes.

Then I met this guy over at the 18watt board.

terry_kilgore2003@yahoo.com

He had some 84s listed for sale and was in socal so I figured a trip was in order.

I listened to and bought a quad of Telam 84s for 75 bucks as well as a duet of some big bottled russian mil spec 84s for 15.

The russians for 15.00 will stomp any current production tube. Period. Better bass tighter tone better smoother highend than any of the jj/Ei/Sovtek stuff. These are a no brainer. I am going to purchase 8 more just for backup.

The real winner however was the Telams. As sweet as any mullard or telefunken I have ever heard at less than a quarter of the price. I am going to grab another quad. I think then he will only have a few quads left. As long as I can get these tubes they will be the only thing I will use in my 84 amps. Any of you guys running a 84 based amp should really jump on these.

Just a heads up.

ah, the JJ is one of the best el84's you can stick into
anything. to each his own.

 

[jkr]

You didn't know who Terry Kilgore was? I'm assuming that's the guy that played on some of David Lee Roth's solo albums.

 

[Stevo57]

MV, I'll give these a shot with my JRT. Thanks

 

[Mastervolume]

Originally posted by jkr
You didn't know who Terry Kilgore was? I'm assuming that's the guy that played on some of David Lee Roth's solo albums.

Hey John!

Yeah that's him....I guess I never really followed DLR

 

[jkr]

I was kind of joking, since I don't think that many people know who he is (other than me probably), but that is kind of cool that it was him! I'll catch up with you soon.

 

[blues]

I have telams in my aiken invader,they kill the jjs,just my thoughts,to each his own.

 

[Gril Grissom]

Originally posted by Mastervolume
I recently sat down with my 18watt marshall clone, Matchless lightening Clone and D13 9/15 and tried out some el84s.

JJ- no. - when compared to what you can find on the market right now.

Ei - OK big sounding tubes.

Then I met this guy over at the 18watt board.

terry_kilgore2003@yahoo.com

He had some 84s listed for sale and was in socal so I figured a trip was in order.

I listened to and bought a quad of Telam 84s for 75 bucks as well as a duet of some big bottled russian mil spec 84s for 15.

The russians for 15.00 will stomp any current production tube. Period. Better bass tighter tone better smoother highend than any of the jj/Ei/Sovtek stuff. These are a no brainer. I am going to purchase 8 more just for backup.

The real winner however was the Telams. As sweet as any mullard or telefunken I have ever heard at less than a quarter of the price. I am going to grab another quad. I think then he will only have a few quads left. As long as I can get these tubes they will be the only thing I will use in my 84 amps. Any of you guys running a 84 based amp should really jump on these.

Just a heads up.

Thanks MV!

 

[DavidB]

If the Telams you have are like those that sell on eBay, I think they are Russian EL84s. Check for flying saucer getters. Current production is sold as Sovtek.

 

[Mastervolume]

Originally posted by DavidB
If the Telams you have are like those that sell on eBay, I think they are Russian EL84s. Check for flying saucer getters. Current production is sold as Sovtek.

nope. halo. I have a bunch of sovtek pulls and these look nothing like any of my current production models.

I did see a lot of ten sell for 89 bux..........

 

[DavidB]

Interesting. The ones on eBay looked Russian, what with the three hole plate construction. Do yours look like that?

 

[Patch]

Go to http://www.vintageamps.com/
terry kilgore is "tubetramp".
there's a couple of thread on those tubes.
also, nickcha put those tubes in his infamous fawn ac30 and he likes them.

 

[telewacker]

I got some of those overbuilt Russian military EL84s on ebay and they are great. They're for my Guytron, which eats EL84s pretty quickly, so they seem perfect since NOS are impratical and JJs lasted a month. The Russian tubes sound better too. About the same price...$20 per pair.

 

[aquadog]

Can you find other tube designs from the same makers of these EL84's?

I'm going to be in need of a pair of 6l6's pretty soon.

 

[Macaroni]

Hey Mastervolume...

I've got new JJs (Eurotubes) in my Kingsley Deluxe 32 (4-EL84s), along with GT-12AX7-Ms in V1 of both channels, and the tones I'm getting are the best ever for me - big, fat, bold, rich, chimey, bell-like, not harsh or edgy, etc.

Can you please give a more detailed comparison between the Telams and the JJs? I'm all for getting something better, so I'm trying to understand in what way they will be better than what I've got so far.

Thanks.